Po redaktohet VICKERS (paragraf)

=== The empire of Stefan Dusan ===

The civil wars in Byzantium in the mid-fourteenth century had destabilised the European provinces of the Empire, thus opening the way for the Balkan conquests of the most powerful of all the Serbian kings, Stefan Dusan (1331-55), an undertaking easily accomplished with the aid of the local nobility. The conquest by the Serbs of the Albanian-speaking lands within the area formed by Antivar (Bar), Prizren, Ohrid and Vlora was mainly accomplished in 1343 when Dusan launched a great invasion of the territory now known as Albania. With the proclamation of the empire, the patriarchal throne was permanently established at the Pec monastery in 1346. Serbia's rulers subsequently dotted the fertile land lying between Pec, Prizren, Mitrovica and Pristina with churches and monasteries, and the whole region eventually acquired the Serb name Metohija (from the Greek metoh, meaning an estate owned by the Church). Thus the Metohija region became the spiritual nucleus of the Serbian nation. There followed a policy of enforced conversion of both Catholic and Orthodox Albanians to the Serbian national church -- conversion to the Serbian church being a priority of Serbian state policy, as can be shown by the Code of Stefan Dusan. This Code -- a form of constitution of the mediaeval Serbian kingdom -- contained so-called 'anti-heresy clauses' demanding that all subjects of the Serbian kingdom and members of foreign communities be baptised into the Serbian church. The Code laid down the role of the Serbian king as the defender of the Serbian church and the extirpator of `heresy'.

In 1346, following the incorporation of Epirus and Thessaly into his Empire, Dusan was crowned emperor of the Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians. The Serbian bishopric of Pec was then proclaimed a patriarchate, thus establishing the Serbian Church's independence from Constantinople. Stefan Dusan made a great effort to encourage commerce and industry, which was skilfully achieved by the importation of foreigners as well as by diplomacy and treaties. Saxons, Ragusans (from Dubrovnik), Venetians, Greeks and Albanians all worked in his rich mines such as Novo Brdo, or garrisoned his fortresses. Never before or since has Serbian power or territory been so great. Today Serbian patriots look back to the age of Dusan as the most glorious in their history and regard him as a hero. His name was to become synonymous with the aspirations of the Serbian nation. Under the Nemanjas, protected highways united Prizren with the Danube and the Adriatic. There was constant communication between Prizren, Kotor, Ragusa and even Venice. The Serbian rulers facilitated the passage of merchants through their lands. For two centuries Prizren was the seat of the Serbian sovereign, and was one of Serbia's chief trade centres where many Serbian merchants as well as traders from the coast resided, including Dubrovnik's consul for all of Serbia.

Prizren naturally became Dusan's capital, and in its vicinity he built between 1347 and 1352 a church dedicated to the Holy Archangels as his final resting place, the only structure he had an opportunity to build as donor. No expense was spared on the interior, which was resplendent in marble, gold leaf, silver stars and mosaics. Unfortunately for the Serbs, Stefan Dusan never learned to hold his great empire together. He divided his territorial conquests into provinces, each under the control of a powerful chieftain. All goes well in such a consolidated state while there is a strong ruler at the helm, but once the `iron hand' is removed, as happened after Dusan's death in 1355, internal conflicts inevitably emerge. The Empire, comprising small semi-independent states under such powerful families as the Dukagjin, Balsha, Thopia and Kastrati, lacked uniformity and cohesion, thus gradually crumbled, especially after it was attacked by the Ottomans, an enemy completely united under the authority of a single leader. Following Dusan's death, Kosovo came under the rule of King Vukasin Mrnjavcevic, the co-ruler of the last Nemanjic, Tsar Uros. In the years after 1371 Prizren declined to some extent, since it had become part of a smaller principality and was separated from the principal mines, which no longer lay under the same ruler as the town. After 1371 merchant colonies at individual mines, like Novo Brdo, grew in size and importance, and much of the trade between the mining centres and the coast was carried on directly rather than being routed through Prizren.